Regardless of his appearance and career experiences, Chitrakar has always been and will always remain a true artist at heart. A graduate of Applied Art from Bombay, Chitrakar completed an MA in History and Culture from Tribhuvan University. In 2004, he came out with the book, “Tej Bahadur Chitrakar: Icon of a Transition”—an analysis of his father’s works.
At 60 plus, Chitrakar currently teaches as a visiting faculty at Srijana College of Fine Arts and writes for SPACE magazine.
After fervently conversing for over an hour on different art-related subjects, we get to the intended question of the interview: What is Art?
“Art is an expression,” he states and continues, “There are different kinds of mediums through which one can express, but the intention is to use one’s conscience and impulses for creative purposes.”
After a long pause, he furthers, “I try to search for the right language and tools before creating a work. I have a mental picture in my mind, which I try to translate into visual forms.” As a teacher of art, he expresses, “I tell my students that it’s my job to show the way, but to look is their job.”
Chitrakar, who believes that each artist should be aware of the fundamentals of art, be it in the traditional forms of Nepali art, or the so-called post-modernist forms, argues, “Many Nepali artists tend to take an easy refuge in proclaiming that their works are post-modern, but it’s meaningless to call oneself an avant-garde when one doesn’t know the basics.”
Throwing paint on canvas, clearly, does not make one a Jackson Pollock, according to him.
Chitrakar was most well known in the 1970s as a landscape painter. Unfortunately, it was also during the decade when landscape paintings took a commercial turn and ‘artists’ ended up replicating postcards in their studios to sell in the ‘art shops’ of Thamel. The phenomenon, often attributed to Chitrakar, ironically averted the artist from painting landscapes for many years to come.
“In a 2002 exhibition, a viewer commented after looking at my works, ‘You’ve lost your identity as a landscape painter,’ ” narrates Chitrakar. With a look of utmost exasperation on his face, he laughs, “Haina bhaneko, who cares about identity?” He has seen that if an artist is continually provoked by every passing moment, from socio-political to personal, then his or her works are bound to change over time.
“It’s the content of a work, not the style, which is more important,” opines Chitrakar, and strongly asserts, “A work of art should make a dialogue with the viewer; and an artist who says ‘I don’t care!’ is lying. You do want a person to stop at least 10 to 15 seconds in front of your work to interpret it.”
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